Subbuteo

[ProvanFan]

The only people I knew who were into it were very particular about it. No fun allowed. Certainly no mini boglins team.

[madhair60]

i would let you play with your mini boglins, ProvanFan

[idunnosomename]

as long as the mini boglins team is one consistent tribe

[druss]

My Dad got me a set when I was a kid. Him and his best mate tried to teach me but their teaching consisted of battering me every game with no instructions so I got bored of it quite quickly and left them to it.

[Poobum]

I miss my mini boglins. When we moved I was told to fill a box with the toys I wanted to keep and fill one with rubbish for the tip, bet you can guess the hilarious mix up. My pet rats made it at least, though I imagine they would have loved the dump.

[Butchers Blind]

Bunch of flickers.

[shiftwork2]

Frank Sidebottom's merch stall featured a team painted in Manchester City colours by Frank himself.  One of the players was...Frank.  It remains one of the greatest things I have ever seen.

[The Culture Bunker]

Always preferred this to all that arsing about moving mini men all over the place with your fingernails:



Picture on the box obviously taken early-ish in the '85 cup final, as Kev Moran is still on the pitch. I have a memory of the game itself making a right racket, so my brother and I weren't allowed it on when our dad had been on night shift.

[baptist]

Weebles for yobbos.

[Catalogue Trousers]

press down the player's head and IT REALLY FALLS OFF

[Proactive]

Always preferred this to all that arsing about moving mini men all over the place with your fingernails:



Picture on the box obviously taken early-ish in the '85 cup final, as Kev Moran is still on the pitch. I have a memory of the game itself making a right racket, so my brother and I weren't allowed it on when our dad had been on night shift.

Yes! I had this but couldn't remember what it was called. God bless my mum for patiently playing this with me for hours on end.

[Emma Raducanu]

I remember my Dad had painted a load of teams for Subbuteo himself when he was younger. It charmed me that he had the patience to do it. Likewise I remember dressing up to play it with my brother but probably never got round to finishing a game. I've still got all the player etc and will never part with it actually.

[copa]

The Spectrum 48k version makes me depressed to think about.
It took a bad game and made it much, much worse.

[There Be Rumblings]

Subbuteo was brilliant. It just took skill and patience to get good at it. Once you learned how to flick it so that players runs curved perfectly, or how to smash shots into the top corner it was epic.

I had the astroturf pitch glued onto a massive board for the perfect playing surface, complemented by official Mexico '86 World Cup goals, Mitre Delta balls, a picket fence, advertising boards, scoreboard, ref, linesmen and a miniature European Cup.

For downtime between games there was Mike's Mini Men, the Subbuteo-based story in Roy of the Rovers:
http://calameo.download/005025176e1ccaa1b78f2

In summary, Subbuteo was awesome and it's not my fault you were all shit at it.

[thenoise]

Everyone else in subbuteo club at school (yeah, I know) used the real player names from their favourite team. I had an entirely made-up team with 'comedy' names. Oh how they laughed! (just me)

[mattyc]

Everyone else in subbuteo club at school (yeah, I know) used the real player names from their favourite team. I had an entirely made-up team with 'comedy' names. Oh how they laughed! (just me)

Do you remember any of the names?

[mattyc]

Subbuteo was brilliant. It just took skill and patience to get good at it. Once you learned how to flick it so that players runs curved perfectly, or how to smash shots into the top corner it was epic.

I had the astroturf pitch glued onto a massive board for the perfect playing surface, complemented by official Mexico '86 World Cup goals, Mitre Delta balls, a picket fence, advertising boards, scoreboard, ref, linesmen and a miniature European Cup.

For downtime between games there was Mike's Mini Men, the Subbuteo-based story in Roy of the Rovers:
http://calameo.download/005025176e1ccaa1b78f2

In summary, Subbuteo was awesome and it's not my fault you were all shit at it.

I think I had the European Cup as well. I think that although it was miniature it still towered well above the players, it was about as tall as 3 or 4 of them.

[badaids]

I was in a Subbuteo league with my friends but I was the only one without the pitch or a team of his own so I couldn't practice and had to borrow the Nottm Forest team that no one else wanted. Thus, my sole purpose, and reason I was invited to take part was to get absolutely tonked by everyone else. My mates, once they had got possession were able to just dribble up the pitch and score every time.

[badaids]

Oh, plus Subbuteo started to die out when Championship Manager came out and I've often wondered if the two were linked.

[jamiefairlie]

My mate had Subbuteo cricket. Hard to imagine that was/is a real thing, but here it is https://subbuteocricket.com/box-sets/test-cricket/

With some skill and practice it was possible to actually bowl pretty accurately at the stumps, but there was an excessive number of sixes scored, unsurprisingly. The teams were national I think, not county, and generally apartheid in skin colour. I guess you could get busy with a brown or black marker if you wanted to, or Tippex for Brendan Nash.

Yeah it was a pity that "Basil D'Oliveira's Confusing International Cricket" never took off as a rival

[dr beat]

Always preferred this to all that arsing about moving mini men all over the place with your fingernails:



Picture on the box obviously taken early-ish in the '85 cup final, as Kev Moran is still on the pitch. I have a memory of the game itself making a right racket, so my brother and I weren't allowed it on when our dad had been on night shift.

I had this and Subbuteo, but Tomy was very much superior.  Also had the advantage of being portable and so I could take it on holiday and annoy other people - yes it was very noisy.  Despite the balls being miniscule and with a tendency to fly out of the stadium, I managed to keep hold of them.

Mine also came with two spare teams which were entirely flesh coloured, the idea being that you could paint them different colours to the default red and blue teams.  I just made them play naked though.

[darby o chill]

Love Subbuteo! Been playing & collecting since the 80's.
Looking forward to the 2024 World Cup in Tunbridge Wells this September.

My current setup:


Some of my rarer items:

Spoiler alert

I made all that up. Subbuteo is shit. Lol

[close]

[dr beat]

Tbf as someone who has a bit of a line of research in football kits the Subbuteo catalogue was always a thing of wonder, what with their extensive coverage, including Italian Serie C and Austrian second tier sides etc.

[McDead]

Phil Collins considers rewrite

[touchingcloth]

The name is derived from the Neo-Latin scientific name Falco subbuteo (a bird of prey commonly known as the Eurasian hobby), after a trademark was not granted to its creator Peter Adolph (1916–1994) to call the game "Hobby".

You can drink your weak limoncello now.

[The F Bomb]

Subbuteo was brilliant. It just took skill and patience to get good at it. Once you learned how to flick it so that players runs curved perfectly, or how to smash shots into the top corner it was epic.

I had the astroturf pitch glued onto a massive board for the perfect playing surface, complemented by official Mexico '86 World Cup goals, Mitre Delta balls, a picket fence, advertising boards, scoreboard, ref, linesmen and a miniature European Cup.

For downtime between games there was Mike's Mini Men, the Subbuteo-based story in Roy of the Rovers:
http://calameo.download/005025176e1ccaa1b78f2

In summary, Subbuteo was awesome and it's not my fault you were all shit at it.

Fucking great link and post. I'll read it that in bed with a nice cuppa and couple of rounds of hot buttered toast. I wish I'd been good at Subbuteo, it would have made my childhood ten percent better.

[The F Bomb]

Always preferred this to all that arsing about moving mini men all over the place with your fingernails:



Picture on the box obviously taken early-ish in the '85 cup final, as Kev Moran is still on the pitch. I have a memory of the game itself making a right racket, so my brother and I weren't allowed it on when our dad had been on night shift.

I absolutely adored this. Thank you. Gonna look for one on eBay and teleport forty years into the past.

[The Culture Bunker]

I absolutely adored this. Thank you. Gonna look for one on eBay and teleport forty years into the past.

You're welcome. Quite amused that Tomy airbrushed 'Hafnia' and the Le Coq Sportif logos off Graeme Sharp's shirt for the box.

[The F Bomb]

You're welcome. Quite amused that Tomy airbrushed 'Hafnia' and the Le Coq Sportif logos off Graeme Sharp's shirt for the box.

I've no idea how they even did that back then.

Just looked and you're talking hundred quid on eBay. Dangerously tempted but shouldn't. Might have a couple of tinnies to bend my own will to my will.

[El Unicornio, mang]

There would only ever be like 4 chances of a shot in a 30-minute game

Sounds like West Ham today